BERALMAR's new managers, Cristóbal Caparrós (left) and Ramon Sarió (right) with the solid fuel injector sets of the time, at a fair in the early 80s.

This period of BERALMAR's history is marked by and important event, none other than the new management of the company by Cristóbal Caparrós and Ramon Sarió in 1982.

The next significant event of this period was the move of the company from Sant Cugat to Terrassa, specifically to the old ALMIRALL pottery works, the chimney of which has been preserved and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for being the highest industrial chimney in the world with a bolted ladder, an unmistakably part of the post-industrial skyline of Terrassa.

From the economic point of view, the world in 1980-1986 was marked by the oil crisis initiated in 1979 by the political changes that took place in Iran. As a result of that crisis the ceramics industry suffered increasing pressure to keep energy costs under control, which lead in Spain to increased sales of solid fuel combustion equipment and to a lesser extent natural gas, for those few ceramics works which were connected to the distribution network. Thus was the beginning of the replacement of what had hitherto been the standard fuel, fuel-oil.

Although this was the period in which BERALMAR consolidated its position as a supplier of combustion equipment using all types of fuel, a feature that has characterized the company up to the present day and is one of its major strengths, it should be borne in mind that this forced adaptation to change was carried out in a very difficult economic environment, and in a Spanish market which was severely damaged by the oil crisis, in an era when most of BERALMAR's business was concentrated in the domestic market, with only the occasional export. As a result the company had only 10 employees in 1986.

SEVENTH PART OF THE TREATISE ON DRYING AND FIRING

In this seventh installment, you will find chapter 1.9 of the treatise on drying:

In view of the intense sales activity and wishing to provide better customer service in the best conditions, BERALMAR has opened its own sales office in the Algerian capital.

The full office address is: Rue CESARRE 5, Algiers 16035, conveniently located in the district of Hydra.

The office is available to our customers for their convenience in their meetings with BERALMAR.

NEW HIRE IN THE TECHNICAL OFFICE

In the month of March, Rubén Luque (32, Valencia) joined the Technical Office of BERALMAR.

Rubén is a technical engineer for public works and has worked on several construction projects in Spain, Algeria and other countries, and joins BERALMAR as Operations Manager for kiln and dryer projects.

Petroleum coke silo in the foreground, and biomass feed in the background.

Firing with biomass produces stunning visual quality.

Distribution circuit and fuel injection, sized in accordance with the low calorific value of the biomass.

BERALMAR has taken a leading role for many years in the field of technology for firing with solid fuels, with a list of references today featuring some 300 tunnel kilns equipped with various solutions for these types of fuel in some 30 different countries. Today we present another step in that direction: the new BIOMATIC which was just successfully commissioned.

The new solution enables the use of biomass, petroleum coke or a micronized mixture of these in any proportion, with the following advantages:

- If at any time not enough biomass is available, the shortfall can be made up by the use of another low cost solid fuel: micronized petroleum coke, the availability of which is guaranteed in many markets.

- Automated fuel change or modification of the mixture.

This system conserves the pneumatic transport of fuels which is typical of BERALMAR's solid fuel solutions and therefore provides the same advantages of low maintenance.

The new BIOMATIC is specially designed for ceramics works located in the most developed markets where regulations penalize high CO2 emissions and where the supply of biomass is not always fully guaranteed in the necessary volumes. The use of renewable energy such as biomass is also advantageous in the field of marketing, allowing the promotion of ceramic material produced in an environmentally friendly process, since it is already common knowledge that its use is ecological.